First Step
by bdwoolf
Summary: O'Neill gets a request to visit Colonel Makepeace in prison.
1. Part 0

Title: From Here To Eternity: The Road to Redemption - The First Step  
Author: GateDemon aka MythingLink  
Comments to: gatedemon@woolfden.net  
Rating: PG  
Spoilers: Shades of Gray  
Archive: Will be archived at http://scarecrowsdream.woolfden.net . Yes to Stargatefan. Anyone else, please ask first.  
Summary: O'Neill gets a request to visit Colonel Makepeace in prison.   
Status: First in Series.  
Warnings: None  
Author's Notes: My heartfelt thanks to Cokie and Moony without whose help I would be lost.  
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and the characters are the property of  
MGM-UA, Viacom/Showtime, Gekko Productions, and Double Secret  
Productions. No copyright infringement is intended as it is  
simply an expression of my liking for the show. 


	2. Part I

From Here To Eternity: The Road to Redemption - The First Step, Part 1  
Disclaimers can be found in Part 0.  
  
***  
  
"I want to talk to Jack O'Neill."  
  
The man in the three piece suit looked at the prisoner, shook his head in exasperation, and sighed. "I told you Colonel, O'Neill doesn't want to talk to you."  
  
Manacles sang as Makepeace scrubbed at this face, their song ended when he finished laying his hands on the scarred table top in front of him. "You know," he sighed, "this room is depressing. I wish we could meet somewhere else." He swiveled his head, looking at each wall, at the two doors set in opposite walls -- one door led to the outside, a world free of the stink and grime of the guilty, the other door led back to the self-pity, the proclamations of innocence, the anger and the hate that had become his home. "Even my cell has more to offer than this room," he added looking back at his lawyer.  
  
The lawyer looked at his client, pity rippling across his face. He closed the notebook he had taken out of his brief case when he had sat down preparing to take notes he hoped would help him in his application for appeal. "Colonel, what is it you want?"  
  
"I want to talk to Jack O'Neill," he repeated.  
  
"And I've told you ..."  
  
"Make him ... please," pleaded Makepeace quietly. "Please."  
  
"All right," the lawyer said shoving his notebook back into his brief case and latching it shut. He stood. "I'll try again. I can't promise you anything though."  
  
"I know," whispered the prisoner his eyes focused on the table top as the lawyer turned and knocked on the door to announce that he was ready to leave. The door opened from the outside and the lawyer stepped through. When the door closed again, Makepeace looked up. "I know."  
  
***  
  
Jack O'Neill sauntered up to the door to Hammond's office, knocked once, turned the knob, and let himself in. "You wanted to see me, sir?" he asked stepping inside and shoving his hands in his pockets.  
  
General Hammond looked at O'Neill and raised the index finger of his left hand in the air, the other hand held the telephone receiver. "Yes Bill. He's just arrived ... I'll talk to him about it." Hammond hung up the phone and motioned for O'Neill to sit. "That was General Moorman."  
  
"Who is General Moorman?" Jack asked as he took a seat in front of Hammond's desk.  
  
"Major General William A. Moorman the JAG for the Air Force," explained Hammond.  
  
"Oh. And what does he want with me? I mean, you did tell him that I had just arrived," Jack said. "Or were you talking about the pizza that I ordered. I can explain that ... the delivery guy didn't get in here. I went up top and met him."  
  
Hammond smiled. "No Colonel, I wasn't talking about the pizza or the delivery man. You're aware that Makepeace got a civilian lawyer to defend him."  
  
Hearing Makepeace's name, O'Neill sat up straighter in his chair. "Yes, sir. He's been bugging me to go see Makepeace."  
  
"Well, he's bugging General Moorman now."  
  
"General, I have nothing I want to say to Makepeace and there isn't anything I want to hear from him either," Jack said.  
  
"I know Colonel," said Hammond leaning back in his chair and steepling his fingers in front of him. "I feel the same way."  
  
"Why do I feel a 'but' coming on?"  
  
"Probably because I set it up that way," Hammond answered. "General Moorman wants me to order you to see Makepeace. He thinks ..."  
  
Jack shut his eyes tightly and shivered in his chair at the same time using the fingers of his hand to make the sign of the cross in front of his face.  
  
Hammond took a deep breath. "Colonel, I said Moorman wants me to ... not that I am."  
  
O'Neill managed to look abashed. "I'm sorry, sir. It's just that ..." He sighed and bit his lower lip between his teeth. "I'm not sure what I'd do seeing Makepeace again. He put my team in danger with his shinanigins. Hell General, he put the whole project in danger," he said raising his voice at the end.  
  
"I know. General Moorman feels that we didn't get everyone involved. That there are still some of Maybourne's men out there and until we get them all, this problem will crop again," explained Hammond. "I agree with him."  
  
"And you think Makepeace is going to give them to us?"  
  
"Maybe ... maybe not, but the only person he wants to talk to right now is you. His lawyer is saying that he won't even talk to him about the upcoming appeal. He seems resolved to the punishment that he's been given so maybe ..." Hammond left the sentence hanging hoping that O'Neill would be able to fill in the blanks the way he wanted him to do.  
  
O'Neill leaned forward in his chair, put his elbows on his knees and cradled his head with his hands. Hammond watched O'Neill's shoulders fall and rise with his breathing then saw a barely perceptible shake of his head before he lifted his head from his hands.   
  
"All right, General. I'll go see him," he said. "But you'd better make sure there's bars between him and me or I might just strangle him."  
  
Hammond chuckled. "Don't worry, son. There's going to be bars."  
  
*** 


	3. Part II

From Here To Eternity: The Road to Redemption - The First Step, Part 2  
Disclaimers can be found in Part 0.  
  
***  
  
The last place O'Neill wanted to visit was Ft. Leavenworth and the last person he wanted to see was Makepeace and it showed to everyone who looked in his direction as he walked to the Visitor's Gate and waited in line to be let in. Too many bad memories of what he had had to do to put Makepeace in this place haunted him: the nasty remarks he'd thrown at Carter and Daniel, his team mates ... his friends. The pain and confusion he saw in their eyes when they'd look at him. The knowing that they had stood up for him even after everyone else was convinced that he had tumbled down that long, dark tunnel towards betrayal. The same place the man he was coming to see had entered over a year ago.  
  
Makepeace's lawyer had been contacting him off and on for six months trying to get him to go see his client. He had always ... always told him that under no circumstances would he visit Makepeace. He felt he knew why the man wanted to see him. He wanted to explain ... to make Jack understand why he did what he did and convince him that it was the right thing to do. Jack didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to give Makepeace the satisfaction and he especially didn't want to give Makepeace anything to ease any conscience he might have. As his father always told him, "You make your bed, you have to lay in it." Well Makepeace made his and it ended up being an eight by ten foot cell that would be his for the rest of his life.  
  
***  
  
He paced in his cell, waiting to be summoned to his meeting trying to plan out what he would say and how he would say it. The seconds ticked away and he saw his life ticking away with it because if he decided to go through with this ... if he convinced O'Neill that what he had to say was the truth, then he was what they'd call 'deadman walking'. His life was forfeit.  
  
When his lawyer had told him that O'Neill had given in, that he was coming to visit him, Makepeace had at once been relieved. However now doubts were starting to work their way into his mind like kudzu worked its way into the ground spreading out, growing to take over everything in its path. He didn't know if he could go through with it and if he could, if he would be able to convince O'Neill of his sincerity. He knew that if their roles were reversed, he wouldn't. But then maybe that could work for him. Maybe he could convince O'Neill by using the arguments that he knew O'Neill would use against him.   
  
***  
  
O'Neill sat at attention in the metal chair facing the glass and the empty area beyond which would soon be filled by Makepeace. He tried to keep his mind free of all that had happened and that the man whom he would soon be talking to was a traitor ... a traitor not specifically to the country he served but to the command he had been assigned to. It was a difficult undertaking and one which he was failing. His mind kept returning to seeing Makepeace bending down to tie his boot, but in actuality taking the artifact that he had hidden there. He kept hearing Makepeace's words over and over again as O'Neill had grabbed his arms and cuffed him sending him to join the other men and women whom Maybourne had talked ... ordered? ... into doing his bidding. The more he thought about that day, the more frustrated he became. He closed his eyes, raised his face to the ceiling, and took a deep breath. He continued to sit in this position even after he heard someone sit in the chair across from him.  
  
"Hello Jack."  
  
O'Neill didn't move. Hearing Makepeace's voice so calmly say his name brought all the rage he had felt when the Tollan and the Nox had first told them of the thefts to the surface of his mind. He wanted to lash out at the man in front of him but if Makepeace did know something, it was his responsibility to try and get it. He took another deep breath, opened his eyes and finally looked at the man he had come here to see.  
  
He was shocked at the man's appearance. A year had done a lot to change the once proud warrior into a mere shadow of what he used to be. He looked smaller, his shoulders stooped, his hair was thinner and almost completely gray, but it was the eyes that drew O'Neill's attention. They were full of doubt and fear. Doubt, O'Neill might be able to understand, but fear ... fear of what?  
  
"Makepeace."  
  
"I'm glad you came," said Makepeace.  
  
Jack shrugged. "I'm not."  
  
Makepeace nodded understanding. "I could guess." He took a breath dropping his eyes to the floor in front of him. "Jack I'm not going to apologize for what I did ..."  
  
"Yeah I never expected you to," interruped O'Neill. "You and Maybourne are two peas in a pod. You both figure you know what's best for everyone."  
  
"I expect you to dispise me for what I did. I expect you to not really listen to what I need to tell you because in the way you think me and Maybourne always figure we know what's best, you do to."  
  
O'Neill bristled at the comparison. He raised a hand pointing his index finger at Makepeace. "Don't you ever compare me to you and Maybourne."  
  
"Jack ..."  
  
"Colonel or O'Neill. You lost the right to call me Jack when you turned traitor. You got me?" Venom dripped from his voice as he interrupted the man sitting across from him.  
  
Makepeace withdrew letting O'Neill have his way. "Colonel O'Neill. I asked to see you for a reason ... not to atone or make you understand ... there isn't anyway I can do that."  
  
"Then why?"  
  
"A year in the place, listening to all the stories everyone here has, listening to yourself tell the same stories ... it does something to you," said Makepeace looking through the walls and into the cell block and seeing the men who all had the same song to sing. 'I'm innocent. I was set up.'  
  
"Ever since the trial ... You know they convinced everyone that I was nuts and that what I'd really done was sell satellite recon photos to the Iraquis?" he asked with an almost wistful smile on his face.  
  
"Yeah, I heard."  
  
"Well ever since the trial I've had a lot of time to think and listen. There's not much else you can do while you're in here. What I hear is a bunch of men who blame everyone else for their being here. I said it myself and in a way, I believe it."  
  
O'Neill slumped down in his chair and crossed his arms in front of chest. "Yeah well, you would."  
  
Makepeace leaned forward. "Think about it. If it hadn't been you and Hammond in at the beginning ... if it'd been Maybourne and someone who thinks the way he does, it'd be you sitting here ... not me."  
  
"Yeah right." Jack sat up. "Give me a break Makepeace. What did you want to talk to me about because if this is it then we don't have anything more to discuss and I can home."  
  
"I want to give you the people that Maybourne answers to."  
  
O'Neill tried to hide the shock he felt. //I want to give you the people that Maybourne answers to.// He knew it was what Moorman and Hammond had hoped, but was it going to be the truth? And he had to wonder why was Makepeace doing this? What did he have to gain or what did he think he had to gain from it?   
  
"In exchange for what?"  
  
"For my soul," he whispered.  
  
~~fini 


End file.
